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Training and Consultation

Since 1977, Energize, Inc. has conducted consultations and trainings for a wide range of clients and events across North America and in 23 countries on every continent. Known for our extensive knowledge of the volunteer management field and our ability to tailor our consults and workshops to the unique needs of an organization, we can promise positive results.

Here are some ways we can help you:

Our Onsite Workshops and Seminars

Energize has designed and delivered hundreds of volunteerism training seminars at the national, regional, state and local levels. We have a reputation for presenting cutting-edge information in formats that fully involve trainees.

We can present training to meet your situation, tailored to the size of your group, its skill level, and your timeframe. You can invite several agencies to share the costs of a training workshop and reimburse the expenses through registration fees. (Think beyond your own network. Maybe there are other nonprofit or government agencies in your community who would welcome the chance to learn more about volunteerism. Talk to your Volunteer Center, too.)

Possible topics include:

Gaining administrative support for volunteer participation

How to recruit volunteers

Employee/volunteer relationships

How to be an effective leader of an all-volunteer organization

If you are considering hiring our president, Susan J. Ellis, to give a keynote presentation, you might browse the archive of her monthly Hot Topic essays for topics that are lively and provocative.

Workshops via the Internet

An affordable option for bringing high-level expertise to your organization or association, Energize offers a wide range of presentations (via Skype as well as slide-based platforms such as GoTo Training) for groups in diverse places, as far apart as Haifa, Israel and Anchorage, Alaska! There are several options available:

Via Skype or other Web service, Susan Ellis can do a live presentation specifically for your group, speaking for any length of time up to 3 hours. When you put a webcam on your side of the call, Susan can also see your group and therefore the session becomes very interactive -- Susan can even “call on” people who raise their hands. (Quite remarkable, actually -- see screen shot to the right of an actual presentation, with participants in two locations; Susan is snapping the picture at the bottom.) This service also includes handouts sent in advance so that people can follow along.

We can present a webinar on GoToTraining, WebEx, or whatever platform of your choice, accompanying a telephone conference call with slides. This voice-only presentation is usually done live, with Q&A by phone or chat, and recorded for repeat showings.

If synchronous presentation is not feasible, Susan can prepare a tailored video for your group, by webcam recording.

Consultations

We see consultation as a collaborative process, blending Energize's expertise and objectivity with your understanding of day-to-day operations. Rather than make decisions for you, we help you to select the best strategy from the range of options we develop together during the consultation period.

We can talk with you about program goals, processes, strategies, recordkeeping, forms and any other issue of concern to you. Consults can be provided in a mix of formats: one-to-one, small group, before or after a training workshop. And don't forget the option of having Susan "attend" your small group strategy meeting via Skype, WebEx, or Google Hangout.

Since 2005, Energize has offered a unique and successful online volunteer management staff development program, called Everyone Ready®. Originially created for large, multi-site organizations, this program delivers a year-round calendar of online seminars, self-instruction guides in PDF format, a portal to the e-Volunteerism journal, and other training resources designed to build volunteer involvement skills across the entire network of each organization. Enrollment options are now available for small and mid-sized organizations and for individual learners. Learn more about Everyone Ready®.

Energize empowers and inspires leaders of volunteers worldwide. Our specialty is creating and selecting the most relevant, innovative resources in volunteer management. We're advocates for the power of volunteers and for the recognition of the leaders who unleash it.